Climate Change, Carbon Taxes, Decarbonization and ENGOs – Page 35

Australia’s new energy policy asks renewables to outcompete coal – by Clyde Russell (Daily Mail/Reuters – October 18, 2017)

October 19, 2017

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

LAUNCESTON, Australia, Oct 18 (Reuters) – It would be easy to dismiss the Australian government’s discarding of a renewable energy target as a Donald Trump-like attempt to cling on to polluting fossil fuels in the face of the rise of cleaner alternatives.

Certainly, the decision by the centre-right Liberal Party federal government to end subsidies for renewable energy projects and reject advice to set a clean energy target has the appearance of being an abandonment of efforts to mitigate climate change.

There will be no shortage of accusations that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull seems eager to walk in the footsteps of U.S. President Trump, who has made it a priority of his administration to support coal-fired power, while expressing doubt about the veracity of man-made climate change.

As Beijing Joins Climate Fight, Chinese Companies Build Coal Plants – by Hiroko Tabuchi (New York Times – July 1, 2017)

October 10, 2017

https://www.nytimes.com/

Over all, 1,600 coal plants are planned or under construction in 62
countries, according to Urgewald’s tally, which uses data from the Global
Coal Plant Tracker portal. The new plants would expand the world’s coal-
fired power capacity by 43 percent.

When China halted plans for more than 100 new coal-fired power plants this year, even as President Trump vowed to “bring back coal” in America, the contrast seemed to confirm Beijing’s new role as a leader in the fight against climate change.

But new data on the world’s biggest developers of coal-fired power plants paints a very different picture: China’s energy companies will make up nearly half of the new coal generation expected to go online in the next decade.

These Chinese corporations are building or planning to build more than 700 new coal plants at home and around the world, some in countries that today burn little or no coal, according to tallies compiled by Urgewald, an environmental group based in Berlin. Many of the plants are in China, but by capacity, roughly a fifth of these new coal power stations are in other countries.

Why Energy-Rich Australia Suffers the World’s Priciest Power – by Perry Williams (Bloomberg News – October 6, 2017)

October 6, 2017

https://www.bloomberg.com/

A bungled transition from coal to clean energy has left resource-rich Australia with an unwanted crown: the highest power prices in the world.

New Yorkers pay half as much as Sydneysiders to keep the lights on, despite Australia boasting among the world’s largest coal and natural gas reserves, as well as ideal conditions for clean power generation. A decade of political dithering and climate policy missteps have set its patchwork power system adrift, ratcheting up manufacturing costs and hurting consumers with a doubling in electricity prices since last year and rising risks of blackouts.

“It is not a bit of a mess, it is a major mess,” said Sanjeev Gupta, 46, the British billionaire owner of Liberty House Group, who saw firsthand the effects of policy neglect after buying an ailing steel-making business in blackout-beleaguered South Australia in July.

Trump and the end of Obama’s bitter ‘war on coal’ – by Sterling Burnett (The Hil – September 30, 2017)

October 2, 2017

http://thehill.com/

Sterling Burnett, Ph.D. is a research fellow on energy and the environment at The Heartland Institute, a nonpartisan, nonprofit research center headquartered in Arlington Heights, Illinois.

What a difference presidential leadership can make, for good or ill, for an industry’s fortunes. Before he was elected president, Barack Obama promised to bankrupt coal companies, and after eight years of his administration’s anti-energy policies, that pledge turned out to be one of the few promises he kept.

Obama imposed regulations limiting coal mining near streams and on mountain tops, allowed cities to block the expansion of coal export terminals and rail lines, and enacted limits on carbon-dioxide emissions, including many that were not justified by any reasonable calculation of human health benefits.

His policies contributed to massive job losses in coal country, the premature shuttering of vital coal-fired power plants, and were a factor in profitable coal companies being forced to file for bankruptcy.

Major Grassroots Victory: Last Coal Export Terminal Goes Down In The Northwest – by Mary Anne Hitt (Huffington Post – September 27, 2017)

September 28, 2017

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

Mary Anne Hitt is the Director of the Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign.

Grassroots leaders just won a major victory for public health and the climate. The last surviving coal export terminal proposed in the Northwest was denied a permit by the state, spelling the end for the project.

On Tuesday the Washington Department of Ecology denied a necessary water quality permit for the proposed Millennium Bulk Terminals coal export facility in Longview, citing the project’s negative impacts on climate, clean air, and water. This renders the project formally dead!

If you needed a reminder that people power can defeat polluters with big money, have I got a story for you. This project was one of six coal export terminals proposed in the Northwest over the past decade, as coal mining companies promised big markets in Asia were hungry for coal mined in Montana and Wyoming.

All global warming predictions are infallible… until they’re not – by Rex Murphy (National Post – September 25, 2017)

September 25, 2017

http://nationalpost.com/

There is a disturbance in the troposphere, much perturbation. The little Gore molecules that do so much to keep everybody in the climate change industry in a sweat are slacking off. The results are—let me coin a word—undeniable. The world’s leading climate entrepreneur’s new PowerPoint agitprop, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, hasn’t stirred the waters or warmed the air.

Take note of that bathetic subtitle, Truth to Power. With just about every government and sub-sovereign government in the world on side, every progressive university in full harmony, every pseudo-science radio and TV program treating global warming with the reverence only found these days among Scientologists and faith healing sorcerers, and every celebrity that owns a yacht and a private jet willing to swear, “It’s real and it’s happening,” which side do you think has the “Power?”

Not to mention the annual mass march of the penguins—sorry, my mistake—the annual trek (by jet) of the hordes of NGOs, Greenpeace camp followers, Green parties, and bureaucrats to Rio or Paris or Beijing or Marrakesh to piously intone The End is Near under the illustrious banner of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Conference of the Parties.

Paris is dead. The global warming deniers have won – by Lawrence Solomon (Financial Post – September 22, 2017)

September 22, 2017

http://business.financialpost.com/

Paris came to New York this week, with leaders of countries signing the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement coming to the United Nations to chide, nudge or beseech Donald Trump in hopes he would reverse his decision to scrap the agreement.

The U.K.’s Theresa May, France’s Emmanuel Macron and Justin Trudeau, among others, could have saved their breath. Since his pullout in June, Trump has repeatedly reaffirmed the wisdom of pulling out of the “bad deal” for the U.S. that was Paris. All the evidence that has since come down only bolsters his case.

Shortly after Trump announced the pullout, stats from the Global Coal Plant Tracker portal confirmed that coal is on a tear, with 1600 plants planned or under construction in 62 countries. The champion of this coal-building binge is China, which boasts 11 of the world’s 20 largest coal-plant developers, and which is building 700 of the 1600 new plants, many in foreign countries, including high-population countries such as Egypt and Pakistan that until now have burned little or no coal.

Romania wants former mining city of Rosia Montana to be pulled from UNESCO list – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – August 30, 2017)

August 31, 2017

http://www.mining.com/

Move could mean good news for Gabriel Resources’ long-stalled namesake gold project.

Romanian Prime Minister Mihai Tudose plans to ask UNESCO to revoke the status of World Heritage site for the former mining town of Rosia Montana, as the nomination means important gold reserves can no longer be exploited.

The application, submitted to UNESCO by the former government, was the last nail in the coffin for Canadian Gabriel Resources’ (TSX:GBU) namesake project, which faced relentless local opposition and several attempts to block the proposed mine by the government.

In 2014, parliament yielded to pressure from environmentalists, worried about the potential use of cyanide to mine about 314 tonnes of gold and 1,500 tonnes of silver, and halted the project.

How Hurricane Harvey made Naomi Klein want to shut me up – by Terence Corcoran (Financial Post – August 30, 2017)

August 30, 2017

http://business.financialpost.com/

The winds and rains from Hurricane Harvey were battering Houston, so Klein sensed an opportunity to cash in on a timely disaster

On Monday, in my capacity as a Twitter watchdog over the general ideological health of the planet, I spotted a dispatch from Naomi Klein. As readers may know, when it comes to the ideological health of the planet, my advice would be to steer clear of Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine and other prescriptions for Dr. Green Statism to conduct full head transplants on the body politic and the global economic system.

The winds and rains from Hurricane Harvey were battering Houston, so Klein sensed an opportunity to cash in on a timely disaster. She sent around a tweet to her followers, but directed at one group: “Any journalists looking for climate experts to interview about #Harvey should read this piece, some very clear and credible voices in it.”

Before we get to the details of Klein’s effort, what seems clear about Harvey is this: it’s not the first time Houston has been underwater from hurricane action; Harvey ranks something like fifteenth-worst in the history of hurricane landfalls in the United States; it’s the first Category 4 to strike in 12 years, despite global warming theories;

Coal’s comeback – by Hoppy Kercheval (Metro News: Voice of West Virginia – August 25, 2017)

August 28, 2017

Home

The anti-coal movement and its advocates in the previous administration in Washington tried their best to snuff out the industry and, in the process, ruin the livelihoods of miners and destroy communities. President Obama’s executive orders and his EPA’s regulatory stranglehold nearly brought coal to its knees.

When confronted with allegations of their “war on coal,” the response was that market conditions and competition from abundant, clean burning natural gas were actually the reasons. Clearly, the gas boom has been a huge factor, but a funny thing has happened since Obama left office and the regulatory boot has been lifted off of coal’s throat—it’s coming back.

The National Mining Association reports, “From the 2nd quarter of 2016 to the same period this year, coal production rose almost 17 percent.” The biggest jump has been in the production of steel-making metallurgical coal from Central Appalachia, where 57 mines have opened (or reopened) in the last fiscal year.

Mixed results for the eco mob – by Peter Foster (Financial Post – August 25, 2017)

August 25, 2017

http://business.financialpost.com/

Canada’s NEB expands its review of the Energy East pipeline proposal, while U.S. limited partnership Energy Transfer Equity files a racketeering lawsuit against Greenpeace and other ENGOs

Two developments this week indicate the stark difference in the political climate with regards to energy on opposite sides of the 49th parallel. President Donald Trump wants to continue to unleash the U.S.’s vast fossil fuel potential, which has had a dramatic, positive effect on job creation. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau looks to a carbon tax and a regulation-forced transition to a land of sunshine and wind-turbine lollypops.

On Wednesday, Canada’s National Energy Board (NEB) announced that it was expanding its review of the Energy East pipeline proposal, which would take Alberta oil to Quebec and the East coast, to include both its impacts on climate, and climate policy’s impact on it.
This promises to make even more complicated what is already a regulatory bog, and represents a major victory for radical anti-development environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) such as Greenpeace.

Climate crusaders have got lost in space – by Peter Foster (Financial Post – August 18, 2017)

August 21, 2017

http://business.financialpost.com/

Climate derangement has claimed another celebrity astrophysicist. Last month, Stephen Hawking, author of A Brief History of Time, declared that Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris agreement meant that earth could become like Venus, where it rains sulphuric acid and temperatures reach 250 C.

Now Neil DeGrasse Tyson, “science communicator” and host of the 2014 TV series Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, has claimed that climate science is as certain and predictable as next week’s solar eclipse. DeGrasse Tyson tweeted: “Odd. No one is in denial of America’s Aug 21 total solar eclipse. Like Climate Change, methods & tools of science predict it.”

With regards to Hawking’s claim, Roy Spencer, a climate specialist at the University of Alabama, pointed out that Venus had 93 times as much atmosphere and 22,000 times as much carbon dioxide as earth, so we shouldn’t be too worried about it raining acid any time soon. Whatever Donald Trump’s flaws, he’s not threatening to repeal the laws of physics and chemistry.

[U.S. Environmental Movement] What can really be done about foreign influence in elections? – by Gary Mason (Globe and Mail – August 18, 2017)

August 18, 2017

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Vivian Krause, a B.C.-based independent researcher and writer who has investigated
the role U.S.-based foundations play in the financing of Canadian environmental
groups claiming charitable status, has submitted a 200-plus page complaint with
Elections Canada on the same subject….“But Canadian elections should be fought
using Canadian resources. Tides has Canadianized its money through Tides Canada,
but that’s just cosmetics. They are breaking the spirit of the law here,
in my opinion.”

When an investigation by The Guardian pulled back the curtains on the winning campaign in the Brexit referendum, the newspaper made a somewhat shocking discovery: evidence of foreign intrusion.

It was revealed that factions behind the Leave campaign were employing the services of analytics firms based offshore: AggregateIQ in Victoria, and another in the United States, Cambridge Analytica, a company owned by U.S. billionaire Robert Mercer, one of the men who bankrolled Donald Trump’s campaign for the U.S. presidency.

The microtargeting strategies used by the Leave forces were highly effective and almost certainly swung the vote in their favour. But what has some concerned are indications that perhaps not everything about the involvement of the foreign entities was above board.

Environment v. economy: Canada’s brewing political battle – by Gary Mason (Globe and Mail – August 16, 2017)

August 16, 2017

https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/

There’s a reason the federal Liberals want to include a clause in any rewrite of NAFTA preventing member countries from diminishing environmental safeguards in the name of fuelling investment: It’s an area in which they suddenly find themselves politically vulnerable.

The North America free-trade agreement negotiations are beginning at the same time as the federal government is preparing to bring in new rules that would put more restrictions on companies looking to establish resource development opportunities in Canada.

Provinces are now bracing for the impact of a national carbon tax that is scheduled to be introduced next year in those jurisdictions currently without one, or the equivalent of. (In Ontario and Quebec, that would be cap-and-trade.) The stultifying impact these initiatives could have on resource investment has become a conservative rallying cry in the west, with outgoing Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall leading the charge.

Brainwashed movie peer reviewers give Gore’s sequel two righteous thumbs up! – by Peter Foster (Financial Post – August 9, 2017)

August 9, 2017

http://business.financialpost.com/

Among the egregious whoppers in Al Gore’s Oscar-winning 2006 movie An Inconvenient Truth was the claim that there were exactly zero scientific papers questioning projected catastrophic man-made global warming.

Therefore, Gore continued, the amount of media coverage given to skepticism was entirely disproportionate. In fact, the mainstream media had already mostly wrapped itself in the mantle of the climate crusade, but for Gore even one scintilla of skepticism was one scintilla too many.

Well, the word is in from liberal peer movie reviewers about Gore’s follow-up, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, and it’s two righteous thumbs up! While they admit it’s a bit of a snoozer, there is not a trace of doubt that An Inconvenient Truth — a masterpiece of alarmist agitprop inflicted on an entire generation of schoolchildren — was bang on, and that weather is getting worse. Meanwhile the transition to a low-carbon economy is proceeding apace, whatever roadblocks thrown by the likes of that Neanderthal denier Donald Trump.